1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to network technology; and more specifically, to an architecture for managing security tokens that is extensible to different token types, and to associated secure message handling methods.
2. Background and Related Art
Computing technology has transformed the way we work and play. Computing systems now take a wide variety of forms including desktop computers, laptop computers, tablet PCs, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), household devices and the like. In its most basic form, a computing system includes system memory and one or more processors. Software in the system memory may be executed by the processor to direct the other hardware of the computing system to perform desired functions.
Networking technologies enable computing systems to communicate even over vast distances, thereby expanding on computer functionality. For example, networking technologies enable such applications as e-mail, web browsing, file transfer, instant messaging, electronic whiteboarding, network collaboration, and the like. Accordingly, computer networks enable widespread communication and information access.
Unfortunately, computer networks also can potentially open up connected computing systems to security breaches. One type of security breach is for one computing system or user to make false claims about who they are to thereby access network resources they should not have access to. Another security breach is referred to as “eavesdropping” by which an eavesdropper computing system accesses the content of a network communication even though the eavesdropper is an unintended and unwanted party in the communication. In addition, an eavesdropper or other entity might alter the network communication on its way to its intended destination. Any of these security breaches can be quite harmful.
In order to guard against these security breaches, a variety of security technologies have been developed. These technologies are based upon the use of security tokens. Security tokens may be used to authenticate a provider of the security token. In this manner, the security token is comparable in the electronic domain to a passport or driver's license in the physical domain. Proper authentication provides some level of security that each party to the network communication is indeed who they purport to be. Security tokens may also be used to encrypt all or portions of a network message, thereby preventing eavesdropping by those who do not have access to the security token. Furthermore, security tokens may be used to sign portions of an electronic message to thereby allow those validating this signed portion to determine if the electronic message has been changed since the time it was signed. Authentication, encryption, and electronic signing thus provide some protection against security breaches in network communications.
Network communications increasingly extend beyond transport-level barriers. For example, a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) envelope may be transmitted from one computing system to even while traveling through several transport domains. This is referred to as SOAP tunneling. A HyperText Transport Protocol (HTTP) computing system may transmit a SOAP envelope within an HTTP message to another HTTP computing system. Along the way, however, the SOAP envelope may be placed in other messages that follow different transport protocols, such as, for example, Message Queues (MQ), Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP), CORBA/IIOP, or the like.
While transport-independent network messaging allows for great flexibility in communication, conventional security mechanisms are transport-dependent. End-to-end message level security across multiple transports requires additional technology. Conventional end-to-end security across multiple transport domains has been provided in the form of the Web Services (WS)-Security specification.
The WS-Security Specification only expressly addresses the use of specific security tokens such as, for example, user name token with user name and password, X.509 certificates, Kerberos tokens and others. However, the number of types of security tokens available for use in authentication, encryption, and electronic signing is rapidly expanding. Accordingly, what would be advantageous is a mechanism for managing security tokens that is extensible to a variety of different security token types, and which is compatible with transport-independent networking technologies such as SOAP.